chili — Annie & Alison: A Food Blog

I tried to structure this project around produce seasonality. Which worked out, some of the time. For example, kohlrabi is available year round, but according to the internet, it “shines” in the winter. Kohlrabi is underrated, and therefore, harder to find. I was lucky to score one at Whole Foods.

Kohlrabi surprised me. Its mild flavor – sweet and slightly peppery – and wet texture resembled a crossover between a turnip and a beet. Though its appearance resembles an alien head, it tastes familiar. I can imagine it would blend in well with many salads, and would probably be a great candidate for pickling.

This recipe is simple – shaved kohlrabi, paired with cucumber ribbons, tossed in rice vinegar and sea salt, and drizzled with Alison’s Crunchy Chili Oil, which really makes the salad sing. The oil is a combination of Aleppo pepper (or red pepper flakes), sesame seeds, and black peppercorns (or Sichuan peppercorns if you can handle them) sizzled in oil over low heat. Alison tells us this oil can always be found in her fridge, and now I see why. It’s adds texture and heat without overpowering anything. It’s a more versatile version of hot sauce. It can carry the flavor or just embellish the flavor depending on what you add it to. Plus, it’s easy to make and keeps for a month in the fridge.

To me, the word that best describes this salad is “refreshing.” I look forward to making it next summer when it’s hot outside.

196 recipes cooked, 29 to go.

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Themed birthday parties were my childhood idea of “BEST BIRTHDAY EVER.” I would spend days and days dreaming up the theme, possible decorations, any necessary costumes, the games we would play, invitation design, etc. Thankfully, my parents were totally on board, costumes and all. I had several themed birthday parties, at least two of which were “Hawaiian Luau’s.” Both parties had tiki torches lit in the backyard, fake flower leis doled out at the door, plastic flamingos and grass skirts, the whole sha-bang.

I recently thought about how fun it would be to throw another luau party, but make it more “adult.” There would still be tiki torches, lei’s and a plastic flamingo. There would also be some sort of delicious spiked punch and a pineapple juice, rum cocktail. And instead of serving hawaiian pizza (which no one actually likes), I’d serve this sticky chili chicken. 3 large platters of it, with extra pineapple spears on the side.

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Here’s the process for making this fabulous pineapple chicken. First, marinate the bird! I used a 4lb. organic chicken from TJ’s. I patted it dry, and seasoned it with salt and pepper before placing it in a gallon-sized Ziploc. Then I assembled the marinade – the most labor-intensive step (which is hardly labor-intensive at all). The marinade includes: brown sugar, chili paste (Alison suggest sambal, but I used harissa), fish sauce, lime juice, red pepper flakes, garlic, and rice wine vinegar.

I cannot, for the life of me, find rice wine vinegar anywhere. I own rice vinegar, wine vinegar, and mirin (sweet rice cooking wine), but the specific rice wine vinegar combination is nowhere to be found. Alison uses this mythical substance in multiple recipes, so it must exist. But alas, I got creative with this recipe. To replace ¼ cup rice wine vinegar, I used ⅛ cup rice vinegar, 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar, and 1 tablespoon of mirin. It seemed to work great!

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I let the chicken marinate for about 4 hours. In the meantime, I peeled and cored a small pineapple, and cut it into spears. The spears joined the chicken and all of the marinade on a sheet pan to cook at 425 for an hour. My chicken took longer than usual to cook, I think because we left another sheet pan in the oven underneath the chicken, and that blocked some of the heat. (Why did we do that? I’m not sure. I wasn’t thinking.) The bird was ready in an hour and 20 minutes. While roasting, the pineapple released its sweet juices, which bubbled and thickened perfectly with the hot and sour marinade. A bite of roast chicken with a piece of spicy pineapple? It brought me right back to my luau.

I served this dish as part of, what I am now going to call, an “ALL-OUT-ALISON” meal: